I usually keep copies of images I find inspiring and print them to stick in a visual diary for reference. However, there's so much cool stuff that I was considering doing it as a blog just for myself really because I always seem to be running out of rather expensive printer ink. It would be completely non-commercial and I'm definitely not passing ANYTHING off as my own. In fact I would link to all artists websites and talk about them - as i say really a record for myself of people I find inspiring. However, I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do this. What's the score on putting people's design work on your blog and talking about it? i really don't want anyone to get angry!!

The kind of usage you mention is ok, because it is fair use. Promotional and not for profit. Of course some websites have stricter policies asking for no use of their images whatsoever, which you may choose to respect, but to be honest that is usually unenforceable anyway. If its a gallery of other peoples images rather than a blog then you start getting into dangerous territory, but there is nothing wrong with a journalistic type context where you are referring to a artists work and simply blogging about it.